LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT/WYMT) – The sight of a tanker truck laying upside down is chilling.

“Very tragic event, here, today,” KSP Officer Steven Douglas says.

A tanker truck running a load of liquid sodium sulfate from Alabama to Akron, Ohio crashed in London, killing the driver, Shawn Sweatt, 40, of Pell City, Alabama. Officers say the truck came up on a slow-moving vehicle in the right lane and swerved.

“I’m sure the load shifting has something to do with it. That liquid is constantly moving, especially with aggressive swerving and driving behaviors. So I’m sure the load was sloshing back-and-forth and probably a contributing factor here, as well, today,” Douglas adds.

“He swerved over to miss, and I guess by that time he was already over there,” a witness, who didn’t want to be identified, told WKYT.

The witness and a passenger were broken down on the side of the road when the semi went barreling past them, missing them by just a few feet.